About SEM

About SEM

Original oil painting depicting North Korean attack by artist Richard DeRosset for USS PUEBLO crewmember Tom Massie. North Korean ship and aircraft numbering is exact for the attacking forces.

On January 23, 1968, the USS Pueblo, a Navy intelligence vessel, was engaged in a routine surveillance of the North Korean coast when it was intercepted by North Korean patrol boats. According to U.S. reports, the Pueblo was in international waters almost 16 miles from shore, but the North Koreans turned their guns on the lightly armed vessel and demanded its surrender. The Americans attempted to escape, and the North Koreans opened fire, wounding the commander and two others. With capture inevitable, the Americans stalled for time, destroying the classified information aboard while taking further fire. Unfortunately, the volume of material on board was so great that it was impossible to destroy it all prior to capture. An NSA report quotes Lieutenant Steve Harris, the officer in charge of Pueblo’s Naval Security Group Command detachment: “Only a small percentage of the total classified material aboard the ship was destroyed.”

Korean War Veteran Leonard Rosen was struck with the idea that there must be a better way to destroy classified information, and he began working to develop a faster, more efficient and secure method. Within weeks he had developed the concept for the world’s first paper disintegrator — and SEM was born.

For over 50 years, SEM has been the driving force behind document and data destruction innovations that are now considered industry best practices. From the world’s first disintegrator to the industry’s most successful line of electronic media crushers and shredders — and the only touchscreen, dual-voltage, NSA Listed degausser — SEM enjoys a reputation for innovation earned from a firm commitment to engineering, design, and product manufacturing.

Today, SEM provides comprehensive end-of-life solutions for the protection of sensitive information in government and commercial markets. SEM’s reputation as the authority in high security information sanitization was earned through over 50 years of technical innovation, intellectual curiosity, and unrelenting integrity. By fostering a supportive, team-centric environment focused on talent retention and client satisfaction, SEM is recognized as the undisputed leader in depth of expertise, industry excellence, and reliability. SEM’s government clients include the CIA, FBI, all branches of the military, DoD, and NSA. SEM is also the leading supplier of information destruction equipment to Embassies worldwide. In addition, SEM’s commercial clients include three of the top five cloud infrastructure providers worldwide as well as numerous Fortune 50 companies.

SEM provides a niche and extremely important service to cloud providers: end-of-life destruction. In-house data destruction is unequivocally the most secure method of end-of-life disposal, as sensitive data never leaves the premises or the possession of the owner, and SEM data destruction devices are the premier high security choice available on the market today.

The SEM Model 0101 Hard Drive Crusher has been "evaluated by the NSA/CSS and meets NSA and DoD compliance guidelines for the physical damage of media" with a durability rating of 204 drives/hour. This hard drive crusher destroys all...